Shadow Travel: Results may annoy
by WingsofDust
Summary: After a random shadow travel, our favorite emo son of Hades shows up at the DWMA. After a hilarious meeting with Lord Death, (Thanatos), Nico is challenged to a fight against Hiro and the "Holy" Sword Excalibur. WARNING: Excalibur bashing, (but who doesn't love that?) Oneshot, standalone prequel to When Worlds (and gods) Collide.


**So, hello to PJO and SE fans out there! 'Sup?**

**Well, I'm apologizing for taking so long on my other PJO- SE fanfic, When Worlds (and gods) Collide. I am currently rewriting it, (or trying to, anyway,) so it's taking a while. Add in real life, and it's been hard to find the motivation to work on it.**

**So! This takes place several months before When Worlds (and gods) Collide. Kind of a humorous prequel, if you will. Enjoy!**

* * *

Nico thought his day couldn't get any more annoying. He was late for lunch, due to Cerberus- walking duty, so Persephone turned him into a daisy. Again.

Then, Demeter force- fed him a bowl of cheerios. _Cheerios!_ Possibly the blandest cereal in existence, in his opinion. He didn't know how the Demeter cabin put up with it. Then, he had to listen to Charon whine about italian suits. Nico groaned just thinking about it.

So, Nico did what he always did when he had a bad day- randomly shadow traveled someplace and hung out there for awhile. In a cloud of shadows, he disappeared.

* * *

"Hiro the atomic!" Hiro yelled, raising Excalibur in the air. In a tremendous blast of fire and smoke, Blackstar, Death the Kid, and Kirikou were sent flying through the air.

"Holy crap!" Soul muttered. "That was one powerful attack!"

Suddenly, the shadows gathered in the center of the courtyard, and darked to form an oval- like shape. After a moment or two, a boy in his early teens fell out.

Maka stared. He was strange, that's for sure. He wore an old aviator's jacket, and a sword on his waist. He couldn't have been more than fourteen. But what was stranger was his soul. It was blueish- greenish in some places, tainted black in others. But it was far larger than any soul she'd seen from somebody so young- at least a meter across, with grinning white skulls emblazoned across it. The strange boy looked up.

"So. Where am I?" he asked, as if appearing out of nowhere was a perfectly normal occurrence.

"Umm... the DWMA" someboy answered. The boy thought for a moment.

"Nope. Never heard of it. What does it stand for?" He asked. The voice scornfully replied,

"The Death Weapon Meister Academy! Haven't you heard of it? It's the most famous place in the world!"

"Death, huh?" The kid replied. "Where is h- ah, there he is." Lord Death came floating down from the school. The boy took one look at the Shinigami and _laughed!_ "S-'sup Thans?" he asked between fits of laughter.

"Don't call me Thans! It's Lord Death here, or Thanatos at the very least!"

"Ah, come on dude. You make Charon's fashion tastes look downright normal!"

"What! This is perfectly normal!"

"Did you borrow that costume from the Fields of Punishment? I think we had somebody wearing that there."

"No! Shut up or I'll tell Charon that you want to start an Italian Suit Appreciation Club with him!"

Nico's face paled. "You wouldn't."

"Try me."

"I'll tell Charon you have a collection of Italian suits in mint condition stored in your office then!"

Pretty much the entire DWMA student body sweatdropped, Maka and Soul included. Maka had never heard anybody refer to Lord Death so _casually!_ Like he didn't care that Lord Death was a shinigami.

"Besides, I don't see you being the Death god!"

"Oh, big words coming from a guy who was chained up in Alaska not too long ago."

"Hey! You were in a jar, if I recall. You didn't help much."

"What! At least I tried! Not any of that 'the dead will stay dead' crap you pulled on them! At least I fought in the Battle of Manhattan!"

"Death is impartial! I can't interfer!"

Soul facepalmed. "Do they sound like two children to you?" Maka stifled a laugh. Now that he mentioned it, they DID sound a lot like toddlers fighting over a toy.

"Ah shut it, Nicky."

"It's Nico! Not Nick, Nicky, or emo dude, NICO!" the boy ranted at the Death god.

"You know what? I've got better things to-" Nico cut off the Shinigami.

"Wait! Before you say one more word, I want to do something." Nico said. He walked over to the fountain and pulled his sword out of it's sheath. Maka instantly felt the air chill around him, and the blade, dark as a nightmare, seemed to suck the happiness out of the air. With one smooth motion, he sliced the top off the fountain and reached into his pocket.

Withdrawing a strange coin, he tossed it into the mist, saying, "Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me Percy Jackson, Camp Half Blood." A moment later, a boy and two girls were looking at Nico through the mist.

"Hey Perce, Annabeth, Thals, you'll never guess what I found."

"Don't call me Tha- the punk girl said, and then looked behind Nico.

"Meet Thanatos!" The three teens looked at Lord Death, looked back at each other, and looked back at Lord Death. Then they cracked up.

"O-oh g-gods, THAT'S Thanatos?" Thalia wiped away tears of laughter. Percy and Annabeth were too busy laughing to comment.

"And make that another immortal Percy has pissed off recently," Nico commented. "What's that make, number six?"

Percy finally regained control. "Dunno, I lost count years ago." Then he looked at Thanatos again and started laughing. Again.

Excalibur stepped between the Lord Death and Nico, rapping Nico on the nose.

"Fool! My legend started in the 12th Century!" That gave the Shinigami an idea.

"Nico, I may not be able to do anything to you, but... how would you like to duel the legendary sword Excalibur?" **(A/N We all know it's a severe punishment just having to DEAL with Excalibur, much less fight him.)**

"I've fought worse" Nico shrugged. This comment elicited a gasp from the assembled crowd. Something more powerful than the Legendary Sword himself?

"Okey-dokey! Let's begin!" Lord Death said happily.

* * *

Nico pulled his sword, and looked at the boy before him. Hiro was strong, no doubt, but maybe that was from the sword. Anyway, this ought to be a challenge.

Hiro started off. "Wings of Light!" He rose up into the air, on, well, wings made of light. What else would you expect?

Hiro lunged for Nico, but Nico easily deflected the blow. Nico parried several more blows, and jabbed directly towards Hiro's chest. Hiro barely managed to deflect the move in time.

"Whoa, this guy is good!" Maka stared in awe at Nico's fighting prowess. He deflected powerful blows with stunning ease, and could dodge some of Hiro's quickest thrusts.

Hiro backed off and raised Excalibur. "Spatial Rift!" he cried out, swinging the golden sword in a massive arch. He appeared behind Nico, but Nico gathered the shadows around himself and disappeared right before the Holy Sword could hit him, much to the amazement of the observers. Suddenly, Nico appeared on one of the three spikes of the DWMA.

"You'll have to do better than that! Honestly, I'm a half- blood, not something you've probably dealt with before. Bring it on!" Hiro flew up to Nico on his Wings of Light and raised Excalibur in the air once more. Nico jumped off the spike and landed on the ground just as Hiro yelled,

"Hiro the Atomic!" Nico was engulfed by a blast of fire, and the crowd hushed. Surely Hiro had won with this attack?

Even Soul gasped when the smoke cleared. The Nico boy was still standing as if nothing had happened, the flat of his blade braced against his palm.

"What... how..." Hiro stuttered. Nico tapped his sword.

"Stygian Iron, absorbs soul wavelength attacks. And that makes your mini- nuke thing the most useless. Attack. Ever."

Hiro cursed. Loudly.

"Now, it's my turn." Nico grinned, and Maka felt a shiver run down her spine. He slammed his sword into the earth, and started ticking off his fingers.

"Wait for it..." Three.

"Wait for it..." Two.

"_Wait_ for it..." One.

"Now."

Both Maka and Soul stumbled backwards when a skeletal hand shot out of a rapidly forming crack on the ground. Five more hands shot out of the earth, followed by the rest of the bones. Several people fled, and Soul didn't blame them in the least. It was terrifying.

Each skeleton shone white, with glowing red eyes, and a weapon clutched in their hands. Most held spears and swords, while a few carried bows. Soul felt the sightless crimson gaze sweep over him and shivered, despite the warmth of the sun.

Then, the skeletons turned as one to attack the panicking Hiro. Without warning, though, Excalibur returned to his non weapon form (because human isn't the right word), and walked straight up to the lead skeleton.

"Fools! My legend started in the 12th Century!" The skeletons shot Nico a look that clearly read "can we please kill him just a tiny bit?" Nico shot the same look towards Lord Death, but he was nowhere to be seen. So Nico replied, "Go right ahead!"

All the skeletons leapt onto Excalibur, pinning the sword/ creature to the ground, while Nico held Hiro at blade- point.

"Do you surrender?" Nico asked.

"Y-yes," Hiro stammered, staring in horror at the skeletons.

"Fools! Unhand me! My legend started in the 12th Century!" could still be heard faintly from Excalibur.

"Well then, I guess I won!" He turned to the skeletons. "Let go of that... thing. The skeletons did so with great pleasure. Nico looked at them. They each wore an identical "Just- met- Excalibur" expression of disgust. "You are released," Nico said, and the skeleton warriors collapsed into a pile of bones, which were sucked back into the fissure. Nico waved his hand, and the crack sealed.

"Ya know, I didn't know mindless skulls could make that face," Nico commented.

Finally, Maka found her voice. "Wh-what are you?" She asked.

"Nico di Angelo, son of..." he listed as if somebody was talking to him. "Fine, father, I won't say it. Anyway, I'm Nico di Angelo, Halfblood and Ghost King."

"No clue what that means, but are you a witch?" Soul challenged. Nico laughed.

"Witch? That's more Hecate's thing. Though necromancer works, if you prefer. I-" he looked at his watch. "Oh Tartarus, I'm late for dinner! Demeter will make me eat a whole barrel of cheerios if I'm late again!

With a wave of his hand, the Ghost King stepped into the shadows and disappeared.

* * *

The Next Day

"I can't believe I didn't get to fight him, though!" Blackstar whined.

Maka was sorely tempted to Maka- chop him if he didn't shut up.

"I mean, I'm going to surpass god, so why wouldn't he wanna fight me?"

"Blackstar, we've heard this all. Freakin. Day." Soul said impatiently.

"I know, but-"

"MAKA- CHOP!" Maka cracked the dictionary over Blackstar's head with the air of somebody well- versed in doing so.

"Blackstar?" Tsubaki said quietly.

"Yeah, Tsubaki?"

"Shut up."

* * *

**Well, thanks for reading. I actually got the idea for this while listening to a Linkin Park song about death, destruction, and nuclear armageddon called The Catalyst. I have no clue WHAT thought process led to this, so don't even ask.**

**This didn't turn out quite as humorous as I'd have liked, but it's not too bad. So, unless you want me to send Excalibur for you to put up with, REVIEW!**

**-FlamingWingofIcarus**


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